Let's be honest with ourselves here, gamers can be a little lazy. But then again, why work when there are perfectly good games to be played? Of course, not everyone understands the gaming lifestyle, so we frequently find ourselves having to make excuses to justify our gaming vacations. Here's some of my favorites.

10. I'm Playing Video Games

"Honesty is the best policy." Obviously, whoever said this has never dealt with some of the bosses I've had in the past. This is an excuse that you want to go to, only if your boss is extremely cool and you have been a model employee in the past. I remember in one of my old office jobs, my boss was just as much of a gamer as I was, and when Persona 3 came out, I simply asked for a day off so I could play the game all day. His response was: "Persona 3 is coming out? I need to pre-order it!" That day, neither my boss nor I was in the office.

9. I Need a Mental Health Day

Maybe your boss isn't a gamer but he's pretty cool nonetheless. He probably wouldn't understand if you said "I need to take off to play Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 all day." But if you told him you simply need a day to not go insane, he might just give it to you. After all, sanity is good for workplace productivity. Remember the movie Office Space? If there's no room to be rewarded for your work, then employees will only work hard enough to not get fired. A simple day off for your own sanity is a great reward. No one needs to know that you are really playing video games.

8. I'm Doing Important Field Research

If your work won't let you play video games, then make video games your work. This works especially well if you are college student. I actually based my final paper in my Marxist Literary Theory class around Final Fantasy X. I wrote Street Fighter fanfiction for my Creative Writing final. I would cover gaming tournaments and conventions for my Journalism classes. Even now, I know plenty of people who incorporate video games into their jobs, even if they aren't necessarily part of the industry. I know professors that integrate video games into their lesson plans. I know salesmen that study new games as part of a changing market. I even know people who work at a pharmaceutical company who have used Trauma Center as part of a presentation. So just tell your boss that video games are work and see how far that gets you. You might be surprised.

This is one of my favorite excuses, because you are basically saying you are way too good at your job to come into the office. If you have everything you need to do your work at home, then the travel time involved in getting to the workplace is just wasted time. So if you have a good track record, just ask your boss if you can do your job from home one day. As long as your work gets done, they don't need to know that you were playing Modern Warfare 3 at the same time. Heck, I once had an important business meeting while playing BlazBlue.

6. I Have a Previous Obligation

This might make your boss a little angry at you, but you'll probably get the day off. Say you have a wedding, or an important test, or some family function that you absolutely need to be at. Just say "Oops, I forgot to request time off." It would be even better if you could find someone to cover for you. If you are a student, this works 100% of the time. No professor will ever hold an important prior engagement against you. What's even better: You can even date these prior engagements ahead of time to sound more plausible. Bosses probably don't know anything about the video game release schedule, so they won't know that that important family function just so happens to fall on the release date of Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright.